Xbox Live And Mods New Info

**Freaky** · 18th November 2002

Just found this on the site of the people behing the new xgen dash, very interesting, for those of you that already know then please forgive me as ive only just read it and thought it was interesting.

the fact that once you try connect it blocks you from EVER connecting again even if you take out your modchip, anyway read it for yourselves.

XboxLive / Modchips Email
I recieved this email today regarging Xbox Live and modchips::

{QUOTE}
So after being unable to connect yesterday I decided to try the unthinkable.
I called Microsoft's XBOX support line and was honest with the rep, Adam,
to whom I spoke. I explained that I had modified my XBox, strictly for
homebrew games, apps, and emulators, explained that I buy all of my XBox
games, and explained the situation that I had no problems during the beta.
I also mentioned to him the article a while back saying that "Microsoft
wouldn't crack down on modchip users as far as XBL was concerned".

Adam was very honest with me and explained that he and the other reps knew
for months that the modchip blocking would be turned on when the service
went live. He also had a sheet of paper in front of him (he told me it
was distributed to all the reps) to help them answer these exact questions.

Apparently:
1. XBOX banning is done based on the serial number
2. Whether or not you remove the modchip, they believe the XBox can never
bet returned to a virgin state, so they will NOT BE ABLE to unban
serial numbers.

At this point I speculated, well if someone does use the XBox for pirating
games, then Microsoft makes $0.00 off of that person. Why wouldn't MS want
to at least get $49.99 plus future subscription revenues from this base of
people. If 20,000 modchip users who use their modchips for evil went with
XBL, that's almost $1,000,000 for MS.

Adam responded:
3. The primary concern of MS with modded XBoxes is not piracy, but is for them
to be able to sell it as the "fair" service to normal people. They
fear that
people with modded XBoxes will be able to cheat making it less likely for
non-modded people to sign up with XBL.

I asked him if there was any plan to change this policy in the future and he
told me that as far as they know, this will be the plan forever. Hope this
clears up some confusion, and feel free to contact MS yourselves. Maybe once
they see how much money they can make from the modders they will do the
"unthinkable" and reverse their policy. There is also a thread in the official
Xbox Live Beta forums:
207.46.200.149/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=155174
{QUOTE}

**UPDATE**
I myself, have called Microsoft support centers, and asked some questions along the same line as DSmooth did, with almost identical results. Bottom line is that XboxLive DOES look for modchips (on, not off) and other detectable hardware modifications and that is that. Once detected that Xbox "should" according to them not be able to ever access xboxlive on that xbox again. I have found this to be true, as i have now tested on over 12 Xboxez personally, with almost all scenarios.

**jpascone** · 18th November 2002

the fact that once you try connect it blocks you from EVER connecting again even if you take out your modchip, anyway read it for yourselves.

Somebody told me they had "switched" their chip off and still got detected, sounds like a bad switch install to me? I am still looking for the definitive FAQ on installing a switch on a 1st gen (Xtender) console.

**Freaky** · 18th November 2002

it might have detected something else then m8, did you notice the bit at the bottom about other hardware modifications.

Bottom line is that XboxLive DOES look for modchips (on, not off) and other detectable hardware modifications and that is that.

he has even tested 12 boxes up to now and not got one of them to work.

as for fitting a switch m8 i dunno if this will help u or not.http://www.xbox-scene.com/articles/endisable.php

wire the wires to here m8

For the Xtender, the pins are 10 and 19

**jpascone** · 18th November 2002

For the Xtender, the pins are 10 and 19

OK just to make absolutley sure, 10 and 19 are the "chip enable" pins? Good FAQ, thanks for the link.

jp

**Freaky** · 18th November 2002

you wire the switch to pins 10 and 19 yes, then when you flick the switch your mod is disabled.

**Yazmon** · 18th November 2002

If you have done anything to the HD its going to be detectable whether you disable the chip or not. To be honest Im surprised there hasnt been games with this sort of copy protection yet...

**raelmadrid** · 18th November 2002

so if you properly disable the mod (i have an x-ecuter), havn't swapped the hard drive and your C:\ drive is how it was when you bought it then it should work, yes?

**Freaky** · 18th November 2002

yeep should be ok if the chip is the only alteration you have made then you disable it

**Arcolite** · 18th November 2002

that's crap, I can't be arsed to swap me HD back soley to play XBL. I'd rather do without and spend the money saved on something else.

There will be XBL Emulators soon enough that work very similar to BattleNetD did for Warcraft3 or a updated XBOX Connect.

**Yazmon** · 18th November 2002

There will also be cracks to stop the reporting, apps to alter the machineID etc. Give it time....

**jpascone** · 18th November 2002

Hmm, I have not upgraded my HD but have been seriously thinking about it, I may put that mod on hold now. I am sure it would be just as easy to use some sort of HD swapping switch? I have seen the 4 hard drive mod (pretty sweet). If switching back to the original BIOS and HD we should be ok? Lots of switching and probably easier to buy a second XBOX (especially with the low prices) but to be honest i don't have the real estate in my cabinet.

**Freaky** · 18th November 2002

no doubt the genius guys who do all this stuff will sort out a way round it, there seems to be no end to thier talents

**Freaky** · 22nd November 2002

Just found this on xboxscene

it seems that m$ are not banning you FOREVER anymore if they detect a mod, now if you disable your mod you CAN connect.

anyway read it for yourselves guys

More about Xbox Live banning
>> Superfro (Team Dextrose) found out more information about the xbox live banning of modded xbox consoles.

Here is some valuable information regarding the live problem, that I have discovered.
First of all I have to give much thanks to DaOne and PappMastA for their help.
Through my test, I have verified that the LIVE system is indeed verifying the bios, and regardless of what they say, they are not letting people on with a modified bios.
Here is the test:

-> (mod enabled)

First we recover our banned account.
Then we try to access account settings.
Network Error.
Network Test, success.
Account settings, Network Error.
Try to play game on LIVE, network error.
Ok, it will not let us access live with the mod enabled any more.

-> (mod disabled)

Access account settings, success.
play game, success.
Ok so we know its preventing us from doing anything with our mod enabled.
So now the real test, is it a dirty patch in our bioses causing this problem?
Maybe its a decryption problem from something we patched?

Lets find out.
We take our original bios.
We unpack it, and then we repack it.
No modification to the kernel what-so-ever. Just want to make sure we can build bioses that run on live.
Built, flashed, tested. Works 100%;
Now, I am to modify the kernel before we pack again. I modified the bios by exactly 1 bit.
Built, Flashed, Tested, Network error, WTF?
1 BIT ?
Hmm... sneaky sneaky microsoft, the only way that this could happen is if the live code is generating a checksum of our kernel.
Lets move on to our packet logging analysis.

-> (mod disabled)
Packet sent,
Packet recieved,
lots of fast packets back and forth.

-> (mod enabled)
Packet sent.
nothing.
nothing.
nothing.
Packet sent.
Packet sent.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Packet sent.
Packet recieved (woo hoo)
(rather large) packet sent.
nothing.
nothing.
packet sent
packet sent..
nothing.
nothing..
... Network error.

By this analysis you can conclude the first packet must contain a CRC for the bios, and the server simply ignores us for awhile... sends a packet back requesting more information about us then we send it, then it just ignores us uuntil we have a network timeout.
I have tested this theory about 5 times and i get the same results each time.
Also, concluding this test, as you see I was not able to even login to live with a modded xbox therefore I couldn't get banned.
It appears the are no longer banning boxes (maybe due to high support costs). But rather saying, disable your mod, and you can play, but we wont allow mods.
I am off to the next step of discovering a proper solution to our live needs... I thought I would make this information available to everyone else first.
- Superfro

Official Website: here[dextrose.com]